Tuesday, April 26, 2011

when i brought it in to her...she said "i feel like a princess!" that's what i was going for, sweet girl!!!

getting an early morning birthday call from her daddy who was out of town!

blowing out her candles with all her sweet "hight hikers"! we were minus one candle...so we all agreed she was just blowing out the "passing of her 6th year!"

such a sweet class...we are going to miss this group being together

sweet girls...miss ava was napping

mommy stealing some sugars from her BIG girl!

ok...here ella is laughing hysterically at us playing the "hot & cold" game to help her find the birthday cupcake! i WISH we would have caught these moments on video...but they'll just have to be recorded on my heart! she was precious!

she FINALLY found it in the real oven! it was so funny to see her so timid about touching it...because of course, they usually know never to touch the oven!

finding out that she was going to get to have a "mock" sleepover with all her special girl friends in her class...in the next couple of weeks...date is TBD!

sweet sisters...ella is fixing to open her gift from us...some doll clothes! don't you love my wrapping?!?!

we had our church group over for a birthday celebration tonight! john & ella both have their special day this week! it was sO mUcH fUn...& apparently there was a tornado warning that occurred...but we knew nothing about it! we were having a blast!

it is truly hard to comprehend that our ella will be 7 years old today...at 2 o'clock. yep, it was at that exact moment seven years ago that our ella blinked her way into our world and our hearts. i can still recall every detail of every moment...and every feeling that i had when they placed her on my chest. i'm not sure i had ever cried more tears of joy.

the hole that had been in my heart forever was instantly filled. i was a mommy to a beautiful and healthy baby girl. she was perfection in a tiny little 6 lb 4 oz package.

we were definitely feeling the love.

and still are. on this special day of her birth. and all days.

ella was a very happy little baby...she could turn on the charm...and smiled at everybody! she was also a handful when she wanted to be...and extremely opinionated about most things! she had an amazing vocabulary from a very young age (still does, really)...i just found a list of all of her "words" and she was saying over 100 of them at 16 months! things like "touch it", "there you go", "mamen" (amen), "sing" (swing), & "memma" (emma)! she weighed 18 pounds at her 1st birthday and nursed until she was almost 16 months old.

every bit of her 220,898,482 seconds of life has made me proud. and happy to be her mother.

she's an amazing big sister and a wonderful friend. she's curious and intuitive. she's concerned about others. she still has the most precious freckles a mommy could ever have the opportunity of kissing. she still sucks her two fingers when she's "simmering down".

and...

she still blows me away.

in the blink of my eye, she'll be walking to get her diploma or walking down the aisle...and this day will seem like ancient history.

the day when at seven years old, she loved spaghetti, coloring on anything and everything, eating strawberries by the bushel, holding my hand, having her fingernails painted different colors, riding her bike without training wheels, cuddling after dinner...at the table!, asking questions like only a 7 year old could, swinging and singing...

most of the time, with that huge, squinty eyed grin on her face!

ella...you can't begin to understand the depth of my love...but i certainly hope you feel it. each day with you is a gift. april 26th at 2 o'clock is certainly on my list of most treasured blessings.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Monday, April 4, 2011

those were the words uttered out of the mouth of my four year old daughter as our family cried over our dog tonight. we have just been given the most devastating news we could ever receive about our beloved pet.

as i type these words, i am reeling from the fact that my entire family had to watch her as she had a grand mal seizure on our kitchen floor just moments ago. it was one of the worst sites my eyes have ever seen. my heart and my eyes sob.

there is no treatment for her. we just have to watch. and wait for her to die.

it truly seems too much to bear.

emma was born in january of 2002 and i will never forget the day we met her. jeffrey and i drove from little rock to hampton, arkansas to meet our little cone headed baby. she melted out hearts from the moment we laid eyes on her. she was timid but playful and the most adorable butter ball you have. ever. seen. it was absolutely love at first sight. we waited a few weeks for her to get a little bit older before we brought her home to officially become a price.

we were such proud puppy parents. she had the sweetest, biggest eyes...and i can still see in my mind the moment we introduced her to her "new home". i'm sure to someone that little our backyard felt like forever...and she was so nervous walking down those steps. she got comfortable quickly and we were a happy family of three.

jeffrey and i began taking puppy classes with her and she was such a smart girl. she caught on quickly and was so very obedient. she almost received her "canine good citizen" award but accidentally moved to a sit from a down stay. (she'll always be one to me!)

little did we know that the newest member of our family was lactose intolerant! we had been giving her cheese as treats while she learned her new behaviors...and she absolutely loved it! one night while jeffrey was working nights though she became violently ill. i had to hold her little body and take her temperature...rectally...which at the time totally freaked me out. after all, i wasn't a parent yet!!!!!! we ended up figuring out what we were doing and completely cut cheese out!

she loves sitting in her daddy's lap...loves her birthday parties...tolerates us dressing her up in costumes and wigs for photo ops...devours anything you put in front of her...and enjoys showing off all of her "tricks"!

she has brought countless hours of joy to our family...and to say that we will miss her seems grossly inappropriate.

she has always been so gentle and sweet with our daughters. from the moment we gave her one of ella's hospital blankets she has taken her job as protector very seriously. i know she would lay her life down for any one of us.

emma is and always will be such an important part of our family. i can't imagine any of my days without her...and that very thought literally attacks my heart...but we can't change what is happening to her. that makes me feel so helpless.

we will love her, love on her, and keep her comfortable. but it just doesn't seem fair that her life has to be so short.

as my family wept around her tonight...and we tried to gently explain to our children what was happening to her...all i could think about was how deeply i wanted emma to know how much we have loved having her as our dog. jeffrey and i have not really known married life without her.

there hasn't been one moment of her life that she hasn't made us proud.

i always knew this day would come, but i so hoped it wouldn't come so soon. it's hard to let someone you love so much go...even if you don't have a choice.

we love you, emma...and we promise to treat every day as your last...for as long as we have you.